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Copyright or Trademark? Filing the Wrong One Gets Your Report Rejected
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Most platforms split copyright and trademark into separate report types, and picking the wrong one is a common way to lose a review cycle for nothing. They protect different things.
Copyright: your actual creative work
Covers the work itself: a photo, a product description, a design, an illustration, video, or text. If someone is using your specific creative output without permission, that’s copyright, and it’s what a DMCA notice addresses.
- No registration required to file
- Exists automatically the moment you create the work
- What our notice generator produces
Trademark: your brand identity
Covers your name, logo, or anything used in a way that could confuse buyers about who they’re actually purchasing from. If a seller is using your business name or logo to pass off their own, different product as yours, or as affiliated with you, that’s trademark, not copyright.
- Most platforms require a registration number to file a trademark claim
- A separate form on almost every platform we cover in the platform guides
- Not something the DMCA notice generator on this site is built for
The overlap that trips people up
A counterfeit listing often infringes both at once: it might use your product photos (copyright) and your brand name in the title (trademark). When that happens, most platforms want you to file both report types separately rather than combining them into one submission, Amazon explicitly requires this.
The practical rule
If you’re unsure which applies, ask: “did they copy my work, or did they copy my identity?” Copied work (photos, text, designs) is copyright. Copied identity (name, logo, brand confusion) is trademark. When both apply, expect to file twice.